


Fire and Ice

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Series: Voltron Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith is Wrong, Keith thinks Lance has a Girlfriend, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Protective Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 08:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12104403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: For the prompt: “i just found out through social media/mutual friends that you’re gay/bi/pan/etc. do you know how many times i did not make a move” au -- from the reunion AU post, but it's I just found out you've always been single, wtf??? with Klance!" from ApprenticedMagician





	Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ApprenticedMagician](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApprenticedMagician/gifts).



Keith lay in bed blinking as the alarms went off all around him. For a moment he was so tempted to turn over and ignore it but he knew the universe couldn’t wait. Besides, the red flashing lights above his bed were impossible to ignore and, after the last time Hunk managed to sleep through a distress call, he wasn’t willing to experience the wrath of Allura first hand.

He rolled out of bed and pulled on his undersuit and his armor and wondered, not for the first time why a culture with such a superior technology as the Alteans hadn’t figured out how to streamline the way they put their on. Seriously, all they needed to do was add another machine in the hugely long access tunnels for the lions. There was plenty of room. And then even Lance couldn’t make excuses.

Sigh. Lance. He was the reason for all of it, the pining, the distractions, the almost unbearable need to curl up in a ball and ignore everything else in his life. But Lance was painfully beautiful, agonizingly straight, and excruciatingly not single at all. And Keith was awkward, gay, and terminally single. So there was nothing for him but to pine in silence.

He could maybe handle it if Lance wasn’t so damn vocal about his love. Every planet they stopped at, he picked up something “For Megan.” And he told them stories about her when there was a lull in the conversation. Maybe Keith was selfish and maybe he would have tried to break them up. After all, they were light years from earth and who knew if they would ever go home again. But every time he thought of telling Lance exactly what was on his mind, he would hear another story and the pride and love in Lance’s voice when he spoke about Megan was enough to make him shove his feelings down deep.

“Keith? Are you on your way?” Allura’s voice came loud and clear through the comms in his helmet. Keith shook himself and realized he was standing in the middle of the room, looking at nothing and he could hear his fellow paladins already in their lions doing their pre-flight checks.

“Be right there,” his voice cracked as he left his room at a run.

* * *

He emerged from the Castle into a hellscape. The planet below them was on fire and the Galran ships were silhouetted against the bright blue flames. Keith couldn’t count them at a glance, not before he was already leaping into action, dodging the enemy’s opening salvo and returning fire. 

“Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro, you’ll need to stay in the sky for this one. Distract the Galra away from the planet’s surface,” Allura’s calm and assured voice directed them.

“What about us, ‘Lura,” Lance broke in. “I can be hella distracting.”

Keith snorted. “You got that right,” he muttered.

“You say something, mullet?” Lance asked.

“No, and you shouldn’t either,” Keith growled. “I believe Allura was giving us our assignments.”

“Thank you, Keith,” Allura broke in smoothly. “I need you and Lance to evacuate people from the planet.”

“People are alive down there?” Lance gasped. “How?”

“This planet is the universe’s prime supplier of Veluresion oil. It is crucial for interstellar travel because a very small amount of it will burn for hours and output a significant amount of energy. It is highly unstable in its unprocessed form and the life forms on the planet are resistant to heat so they are quite adept at handling fires on a smaller scale. They have shelters to protect them from larger fires but even they were not equipped to deal with this on a planet wide scale. Lance, I need you to use your ice ray to keep the worst of the flames from the entrances of their shelters. And Keith? Red is the only one who can brave the fire long enough to land and evacuate everyone.”

“We’re on it, Allura,” Keith responded, pulling Red down out of formation and heading toward the planet’s surface.

“Whoo!” Lance shouted in his ear. “Lancey-Lance and the Keithster, bringing the heat.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “That makes no sense. We’re not bringing the heat. You’re bringing the cold.”

“Your face doesn’t make sense,” Lance scoffed. “Just go along with it. You’re dampening my cool factor.”

“Is something wrong with Blue? Do we need to turn back?” Keith asked, suddenly concerned.

“What? No!” Lance screeched. “Blue is awesome. We’re about to blow your mind.”

Keith sighed and followed Lance in. Allura sent them the coordinates of the first shelter and Lance made a low sweep, icing up the door and anything else in a 20 foot radius. The fire immediately began licking at the edges of the ice, shrinking it by ten feet in a matter of seconds.

“Better hurry, Keith. This is not going to hold out long,” Lance gritted out as he flew Blue in circles, blasting his freeze ray at the edge of the frozen ground and trying to keep it from melting.

Keith started to land but thought better of it as the ice beneath him melted into water and started to steam.

“Don’t land,” Lance shouted as he swept his ice beam under Red’s feet and refroze the boiling pool.

“No shit,” Keith gritted back. He held Red in a hover and lowered the head until Red’s snout was practically knocking on the door. The Veluresians opened the door and waited as Lance did another ice sweep, nearly catching one of Red’s forepaws in the blast. Once the ice had reformed, Keith opened Red’s mouth for the Veluresians to scramble inside.

He flipped the intercom on and spoke to the survivors. “Follow the light track into the cargo hold and strap yourself to the wall as best you can. I’ll fly as smoothly as I can for now but try and be quick.”

Keith flew as smoothly as possible until he reached the next shelter and the hectic dance began again.

“Good thing this is magic ice,” Lance gasped in his ear. “Can you imagine if we needed to gas the lions up? I would have run out of fuel ages ago.”

“Are you alright?” Keith asked quickly. “We still have three more shelters to evacuate. If you’re not up to it, I need to know.”

“Don’t get your gonch in a bunch,” Lance scoffed. “If you’re fine, I’m fine. It’s just that all the energy for temperature regulation in the cockpit is being funneled to the ice beam so I’m sweating a little. You SO owe me a cold shower...drink! You owe me a cold drink when we’re done here.”

“...don’t get my what in a what?” Keith teased.

“Shut up. ‘M hooot,” Lance whined.

“Ok, buddy,” Keith said before sending another announcement to the new group of survivors making their way to the cargo hold.

The next two rescues happened without incident. Keith and Lance didn’t speak but Keith listened to Lance breathing through the headset, relieved when it didn’t sound like his fellow paladin was in distress.

And then there was the last shelter to evacuate. And maybe Keith was feeling a little cocky. But as the last few survivors entered the Red Lion’s mouth, he let out a big sigh of relief and that is the moment that disaster struck. 

A Galra ship broke through Shiro and the others and flew far too close to the flames. It flew straight through one of the big spouts of flame and ignited instantly, pinwheeling toward the surface of the planet, and toward the Blue Lion.

Keith felt he was watching in slow motion. He tried to get in between Lance and the flaming ship but Red resisted him, aware of the precious cargo in the hold. “LANCE!” he cried out. 

And he could see Blue trying to get out of the way but he knew Lance was exhausted and so Keith could only watch as the flaming ship plowed into the Blue Lion’s side and drove them into the fire. Lance was screaming in his ear. He used the controls to force Red to set down but Red was not responding and it wasn’t until he focused on Allura’s voice shouting in his ear that he figured out why.

“Keith, you have to come back to the Castle. You’re carrying too big a load. You’re not strong enough to pick up the Blue Lion. You can’t save him unless you bring the survivors here,” Allura was barely containing the hysteria in her voice.

“I can’t leave him,” Keith cried. “Shiro…”

“None of us have any defenses,” Shiro’s voice crackled in his ears. “We can’t even get close.”

“I’m...ok,” Lance panted. Keith looked down and saw a bubble of ice blow up around blue, only to instantly melt and be replaced by another bubble. “But hurry...Blue can’t...can’t fly...and I don’t know...how long.”

“Hold on, Lance,” Keith shouted before darting as fast as his overloaded lion could take him back toward the castle. Hunk shielded him from the Galra ships so he didn’t have to waste time fighting while he flew.

It seemed like the Veluresians took forever to evacuate, even though they knew the gravity of the situation and were actually running to leave the lion.

Keith was darting out the bay doors the moment the last person landed on the floor. “Lance,” he pleaded. “Hold on.”

“Keith?” Lance whimpered.

“I’m on my way. Just a little longer now,” Keith gripped Red’s controls so tight his knuckles went white.

“Keith, if I don’t make it…” Lance’s voice was weaker in Keith’s ears.

“Shut your quiznak. You’re gonna make it!” Keith shouted.

“I don’t...think...that’s how you use...that word,” Lance chuckled breathlessly. “But seriously...tell...my sister...I love her...and give her...my stuff.”

“I won’t need to. You’re gonna do that yourself. I can see you now. You just have to keep holding on, you hear me?” Keith said. There was nothing but silence from the other end. Keith was close enough now to see that the ice bubble had slowed down. It was taking longer and longer to reform every time it melted. There was the barest hint of frost on Blue’s paws and muzzle by the time Red got close enough to reach out for Blue. Keith choked as he finally felt the full effect of the heat without the protection of Lance’s ice and the slow creeping dread in his stomach told him it was already too late. How could Lance have survived this?

The Blue Lion was almost too heavy but the Red Lion and her paladin would not let that stop them. The moment that the vacuum of space had cooled Blue enough that they could touch her, the other three paladins surrounded them and helped carry her in, Shiro on the left, Pidge on the right, Hunk underneath to take some of the weight from Red. They could hear the metal groaning as the Lion shifted temperature rapidly and Keith prayed that whatever magic filled the Lions could keep Blue from splitting apart.

Keith was already running to the mouth of his lion as Red finished the landing sequence but Coran was the first one to reach Blue. Her mouth wasn’t opening and it took both his and Allura’s strength to force open the partially melted emergency hatch. A wave of dry heat rolled out the door and dissipated into the hangar and Keith almost felt for his eyebrows to make sure it hadn’t singed them off. He pushed past Allura to get to the cockpit but stopped short when he saw Lance collapsed over in his seat, skin bright red and breath so faint he wasn’t sure if Lance was alive at all.

It was only a second of hesitation before he leapt forward and dragged Lance out of his seat and into the cooler air of the hangar. Coran leapt to bring a stretcher closer but Keith collapsed with Lance in his arms and Lance began to convulse.

“Don’t try to hold him still,” Coran commanded. He dragged a blanket off the stretcher and spread it over Lance’s still seizing body. Keith shivered at the chill of it as he lowered Lance carefully to the floor. He didn’t want to let go but he forced himself to use his arms as a cradle to keep Lance from hitting his head rather than a restraint. He watched silently as Coran jabbed a needle through the blanket into Lance’s hip and finally Lance’s limbs began to relax and stop moving altogether. Keith put his hand in front of Lance’s mouth and sighed in relief as he felt the puffs of air from Lance’s mouth even out and grow stronger.

“Shiro, can you help Keith roll Lance onto his side?” Coran requested.

Shiro nodded and stepped in. Keith slid out from under Lance’s head but couldn’t bear to let him go completely and stayed crouched beside him, hand on Lance’s chest, feeling his heart beating fast and irregular like a hummingbird with a broken wing.

Coran collapsed the stretcher beside them. “Ok, and now lift Lance a little so I can slide this under him.” And within minutes, they were wheeling Lance down the hallways to the healing pods. Keith stayed at Lance’s side through the whole process, wincing as he realized the redness on Lance’s face was actually a burn from the superheated air in Blue’s cockpit and that the reason that Lance’s breaths stuttered in his chest was because he had been breathing that air for so long before he was rescued, and the fluttering heartbeat he had felt under his hand was because he had lost so many fluids it had dangerously affected his blood volume.

Keith watched silently as Coran hooked up a complicated system of tubes in the healing pod to replenish Lance’s catastrophically low fluids. He released a breath he didn’t know he was holding once the pod finally closed and Lance’s vitals began to even out on the screen. Then his legs turned to jelly and he collapsed to a seat beside Lance’s pod and began to wait.

When Lance’s pod opened and the cold air bled away into the room, Keith was there with a blanket in his arms to catch him.

“I can walk,” Lance mumbled. Keith completely ignored him and swept him up in his arms to carry him to his bedroom.

“Keith,” Shiro started to object.

“Lance needs space and rest,” Keith scowled. “Coran can come and check his vitals but you’re not seeing him until he’s ready.”

“I’m good,” Lance began, but quickly shut up in favour of nuzzling into Keith’s neck and falling into a light doze.

“Such an idiot,” Keith growled and glared at Coran until he shut the door behind them.

Coran’s examination was quick and to the point. “He will be fine. At this point, all he needs is rest.

“Good,” Keith said. “Get out.”

Coran grinned. “Not a problem, Number Four. I know he’s in good hands.”

Keith looked down at his hands as Coran slipped out. “Not good enough,” he whispered. He grabbed a chair from the edge of the room and dragged it to the head of Lance’s bed and settled in to wait. He’s not sure how many hours had passed by the time Lance finally stirred and opened his eyes.

“Keith,” Lance grinned. “I knew you could get me out. Never doubted you for a second.”

Keith glared down at Lance. “Never doubted me? You gave me your quiznaking last words but you never doubted me? Also, why does it take you nearly dying for me to find out you have a sister?” he ranted.

Lance gaped at him. “Um...what? I talk about my sister all the time. Are you feeling alright?” He leaned up to put his hand on Keith’s forehead.

Keith angrily batted Lance’s hand away.

“I’ve seriously never mentioned Megan to you?” Lance asked.

“Wait...Megan?” Keith could feel the look of surprise on his face but didn’t know how to make it go away. Then he slid off the chair onto the floor and proceeded to die with hysterical laughter.

“Yeah, Megan, my baby sister. She has this thing about texture and she hates earth textiles so every time I find something really smooth or soft, or really alien feeling, I pick it up for her. I can’t be there to protect her but at least I can help make her space a little safer and more comfortable when we return,” Lance explained. “I seriously never told you this.”

“No, I definitely would have remembered. I thought she was your girlfriend and you were the most loyal boyfriend in human existence!” Keith buried his face in his hands.

“Um...no...terminally single here,” Lance blushed.

“You’ve been single this whole time. We’ve been in space for months and I’ve been PINING and this whole time there was nothing stopping me?” Keith’s voice broke embarrassingly.

“Wait, you’ve been pi….” Lance was cut off very suddenly as Keith leapt up on the bed and swallowed the rest of the word in a searing kiss.

Eventually, they paused to catch their breath and Keith pulled back to look at Lance.

“Uh...that was…” Lance stopped to suck in a huge breath of air.

“Oh god, I’m sorry. All you said was you’re single, not that you liked me. Why am I like this?” Keith could compare the heat on his face to the heat on the surface of planet Velures.

“Please don’t apologize,” Lance begged, reaching out a hand and clasping Keith’s wrist as he tried to leap from the bed. “There are much better things you could be doing with your mouth.”

Then it was Lance’s turn to blush and hide his face. “I just meant you could kiss me again,” he mumbled.

“Oh,” Keith said. “Yeah. I can do that.”


End file.
